Ocarina of Time Collection
by Cat Dawntreader
Summary: Old stories archived: "Lullaby"-Zelda & Ruto, "Blue"-Zelda & Link, & "Secrets" -Saria & Link.
1. Lullaby

**A/N: This is my first Zelda fic. Constructive criticism is, as always, welcomed. **

**_READ_... **

:-((**Lullaby**))-:

[**O**]_1_[n]_1_[**E**]

It was nighttime somewhere outside the boundaries of Hyrule, free and safe from the tyrant. Three long years had passed since they had departed from the castle and by a hair, escaped death. It was a long trip, but in the end it was worth it; both were safe and sound, quietly adapting to a new life. Even with safety and feigned tranquility they would always be...

_ Away from home._

_ Stuck in less than royal quarters, the fading memories of once existing power, and not a voice of encouragement, life could have been better._ _Way better_, Zelda contemplated, face buried deep in her pillow.

She changed position several times. She finally stretched out, with legs and arms stretched across the bed. Her feet dangled uncomfortably outside the frame, but at least, she could try to get some sleep.

_ The gift of slumber, under appreciated all those times_; how she wished to have taken advantage of it when she still had the chance. _It's late, the lights are out, but not a fiber in my body feels the darkness devouring the last of daylight. The night is here, but why don't you sleep? _

_ Sleep. _

_ Sleep. _

_ Sleep. _

_((A damsel in distress, vanity in a mess...)) _

About an hour later, Zelda finally dozed off. Breathing rapidly, she found herself trapped inside another nightmare. All the problems in her life came rushing towards her in a continuous motion, one after the other in a dream, to her greater dismay.

_Link, where are you?_ With knees pressed against her chest, she rocked back and forth, in serious attempt to ease her distress. Without his aid, all that she sees would perish, or worst, be turned into the hands of her greatest nemesis, Ganondorf.

_Now that you think about it, watching it all come crashing down is not as bad_.

_Where are you?_ Zelda's patience was being held under the blade of raw apprehension. _He's coming. _She could feel it, her heart pounded against her chest and the nerves behind her neck tingled.

An image of a boy in a green tunic appeared unexpectedly, standing over her. Anger shadowed his aquamarine eyes, making them navy blue. He brandished a sword in one hand, a wooden shield in the other. Roguishly, he walked away from her.

"I'm not here for you anymore," he responded. "The past is only a blur to me, and so are you."

"Link, please, help me." Refusing to accept more abandonment, she grabbed a hold of his right leg with both arms. "You're all I got," she heard herself plea, half in desperation, half in instinct. "You're all I got."

"You're scared, aren't you?"

The girl bowed her head silently. It was true. She was scared. _He knew her too well_.

Link placed a gentle hand under her chin, making her shudder under his touch. It scared her, didn't it?

"I'm scared, Link."Zelda leaned on his shoulder, letting her tears dry off his tunic. For now, he was her only friend, the only one visible. As she predicted, letting herself be exposed this way to him made her feel strangely secure. No secrets lay between them, just like how it should have been from the start. He was the best friend she had in another lifetime; it could have been déjà vu or simply another effect of her trust in the young boy.

"I understand." The muscles on his scarred face relaxed, there was a sign of honesty the way he had said it, and surely Zelda had fallen for it.

He increased the pressure on her neck, making her feel uneasy. "Fear, it's horrible isn't it? The way it makes you feel weak, small, and insignificant to those around you. I know fear, I've lived it all my life, thanks to you."

"Link, you're hurting me." His fingers were digging deeper into her flesh. She wouldn't be surprised if they left soft purple imprints by the time he realized he was letting his emotions control him. But by the strength of them, it was completely intentional. He _wanted_ to hurt her.

Link pulled her up and treaded to the ledge, they had been atop the castle all this time. Strange how she hadn't notice before.

"Look at your kingdom, princess." He forced her to face the horizon, to open her eyes, and see for herself the consequences of her mistakes. Princess Zelda couldn't help avoiding it with her life on the line, and thus she went along with his command, slowly, as of by no pressure, opening her eyes.

It was all black, sunless behind clouds of polluting smoke. She could smell the odious perfume of blazing verdures in the distance. "Isn't it beautiful? he asked, looking down to her with a sinister grin on his face. "And I did nothing to stop it."

"Let go of me!" Angered, she twists his wrist, almost certain that she heard something snap as she spun around. "This is all your fault!"

"My fault? Was I the one that ran away?"

He started towards her again, making her stumble a few steps backward.

"Trying to run away on me again?"

"Just stay away from me!"

"I wish I could," spoke a voice, not of Link. The voice had caused all her misery.

Her eyes widened in terror. "It's you."

Ganondorf took out his dagger from the concealment of his boot, and in a flash, slid it across her neck. He frowned slightly; it was just too easy.

Zelda fell limp on the pavement. Within seconds, she was no different from all the other victims- dead, gone, and forgotten.

_ Trust. _

_ Your. _

_ Heart. _

[**T**]_2_[w]_2_[**O**]

"Zelda!" Ruto shook her relentlessly. "Zelda wake up!" she clouted the princess with her hand.

"Ow!" Zelda awoke without a yawn, groggily rubbing her reddened cheek. "You know Ruto, those scales of yours hurt."

"Well, you were crying and tossing in your sleep, what's a girl to do?" Ruto frowned. "Are you all right? That dream of yours didn't look all that pleasant the way your facial expressions said it."

"I'm fine." Zelda sat up and offered a seat to Ruto. She took it and with a soft _Oof!_, quickly plopped herself down on the bulgy edge. "How did you get in here? Impa is watching outside my door and two guards are armed to the tooth by the entrance."

"I came through that hole." She pointed to the small water hole about a foot or two from the bed. It had supplied the clean water that has kept them going on for the last three years. "It took me about a year to find you Zellie. I always knew that you would have a river or pond nearby to live off on," Ruto pointed out. "Nonetheless, it was worth it for a friend." She smiled. Her lovely smile was only a small gem compared to the rest of her dazzling features. The Zora had grown more beautiful with time, even more so than Zelda, she thought. Her own face still seemed childish in comparison with the exception of the years of worry that had strained the impish sweet look of hers.

__"So you've been here before, huh?" Zelda asked.

"...Yes. I didn't know how to say it at first so I just made sure you were all right. Watching you sleep can be fascinating sometimes, you know. Tonight was no different that all the other nights, except that you were having a bad dream."

"It was you all along!" The princess beamed. "I thought, oh my goodness this is embarrassing"- her voice lowered- "I thought it was Ganondorf."

"Who?"

"Ganondorf!" she shrieked, realizing her mistake she quickly covered up her mouth.

"You can scream all you want, no one will hear yah."

"But Impa and my guards... they'll hear, and then they'll know you're here." The ivory cream features darkened, worrisome. "If they know that someone has discovered our hiding place, we'll have to move."

"Impa went out and I believe your guards are sleeping, again. We could be screaming 'the Gerudos are coming!' and no one could hear." The blue child crossed her arms. "How's that for a spy princess?"

"Not bad, not bad at all," Zelda teased. "I wouldn't be surprised if you knew what I was dreaming about."

"Let me guess... Ganondorf?"

A brisk nod.

"What was _he_ doing in your dreams?" The Zora tilted her head to the side, baffled by Zelda's unfriendly encounter with the Gerudo king. "Don't you usually dream about Link, or," she winked before continuing, "is there someone else?"

"It _was_ Link at first."

"With who?" Ruto involuntarily inquired.

"What?"

"No, nothing, at all." Embarrassed, she started for the loose thread on the bed's edge. Pulling the first one, Ruto began to hum a familiar tune.

Zelda's eyes brightened, full of fluid emotion._ My Lullaby. _

"I haven't heard that song for a long time. Impa used to sing it to me, but I guess she thinks it lost its touch in me," she dolefully noted. _How long has it been, three, four years? _"Dreams have never been the same without it." _Neither Link nor Mother are part of them anymore. I see you. _An image of Ganondorf flashed in her mind and instantly vanished, much like the flame of a candle when exposed to a storm.

"It's psychological, I can't sleep without my mother's silver scale. It's like my most precious memory of her is trapped inside of it."

They both shared a silent moment, eyes locked, allowing each other to share a fragment of pain. Their mothers had shared the same mutual connection. Tragically, they had passed away so young, leaving daughters behind, hoping that they would not too be drawn against a similar fate. Instead, they prayed that these two would share the same deep friendship that would heighten their strengths as they ruled their kingdoms. Had they?

"Ruto," Zelda spoke, shattering the intrusive silence, "would it be too much if I asked you to sing it for me?"

"Um... sure." She answered uncertainly, it was strange enough that Zelda's mentality was askew tonight, but this bested it beyond comprehensibility. _Why would she ask me to sing it when it hurts her so deeply? _

Without questioning, the Zora started singing Zelda's Lullaby. Her cheeks blushed with the first awkward notes she sang incorrectly. On her second try, they turned to a delicate shade of rose, proudly empathizing success, as Ruto captured the heart of the song in her vocal cords.

The pair of violet eyes fluttered drowsily attempting to stay alert until the last wondrous note. Her eyelids grew heavy under the burden of sleepiness; it was the first time in years that her eyes were catching up with the eternal fatigue of her spirit. They slowly began to close, until finally, she fell asleep. For the first time in three years, she had fallen asleep without the aid of a pillow dampened with tears or worries that ultimately shut down her mind and force her throbbing lids to seal her eyes.

Darkness was the cloth she pulled over her face to hide from her fears every night. Now it would serve a greater purpose, to keep her dreams safe from the outside world.

The princess of Hyrule fell asleep on the tattered bed, but in her mind, she was sleeping in her mother's arms.

"Good night." Ruto whispered.

"Mama," was the reply.

_ Mama_. It was the last thing Princess Ruto heard before she exited with a triumphant smile on her face.

_((A damsel in her rest, vanity at her best...)) _


	2. Blue

**Disclaimer: **Blue, Azure, Jay, and Eros are original characters. I claim ownership to no particular video game or sexy elf. Written in my mid-teens, during a time in which I was deeply enthralled with George R. R. Martin's _Song of Ice and Fire _series.

**Author's Note:** Don't kill me.

**Fanfiction Note:** Sort of alternative universe with elements of Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past - with a dash of crazy.

For everyone who said Link and Zelda were related. How wrong/right you were… L/Z *nervous cough*

_Enjoy!_

* * *

**Blue**

* * *

"_Cluck! Cluck!" _a cucco greeted dawn. It ruffled up its feathers, fattening deliciously in the coffee-brown eyes of the just-awoken soldier. An old feather sank to the blanket the cucco had claimed as its nest during the night, the _soldier's_ sleeping sheets given to him by his late mother. The hunger for cucco stew left the soldier's lips when he saw the white and green splatter on the worn wool sheets. He gave the bird a fine smack with the back of his leather-clad hand.

"Damned birds!" Eros cursed. The soldier shook the feathers and ticks off the sheets, but the splatter remained. He ran his hands in his greasy blond hair, untangling the weaker knots, tearing out the knobs of stronger ones. Pointing to the cucco, now pecking with an air of dignity at the spring earth of Hyrule's fields, heavy with grass seeds and thick dirt worms, he cursed it again, "I'll kill you, your mother, and the girl who raised you both!"

"Eros, come and look at this!" Eros came up to the side of an identical blond man with a half-shaven beard and knife and soap in his hands. His twin brother, Jay, was an early riser, infatuated with the salmon pink of the dawn Eros hated, for it meant the start of a hot day beneath metal and leather, whether it be summer, spring, autumn, or winter's pitying cold kiss on his uncovered face.

Jay did not regard him at all, only watched someone searching through the tall grass, finding on lucky occasions, a rupee or a good deku stick. Eros watched as well with more interest than his twin.

"What's our lady doing out there?" he asked. As long as peace remained disputed, the king's child was unsafe in the Hyrule fields. Perhaps the commoner's rags she wore would fool some, but it was a poor disguise in the end. Zelda's grace was exceptional… or so he thought.

Jay elbowed him hard. "That's not our lady. That's Link."

"The hero, huh?" He raised a dusty brow, watching the boy. The same azure eyes of his lady found his gaze. He turned away, and then watched him again. Why be intimidated by a meager copy of his lady's gaze? A soft wind broke though the field tossing the boy's cap in the spring air, where it floated with an uncharacteristic fervor, wildly higher. The winds pulled at the boy's golden tendrils, mussing them. The pale yellow hair caught the sun in its gold sheen. The soldier said nothing, even as the child turned his memorable face and the spiraling golden hair _… …not as refined as… as…_ to him.

"The bastard hero," muttered Jay.

"It can't be, Jay."

"You saw him! That's no fucking green child. It's our king's bastard son."

"He's Zelda's beloved… Someone would have known. Someone would have stopped them, if—if they are siblings—or half siblings." _The Goddesses would not allow it, _Eros thought, _if it were true. _

Jay snorted. "Ages ago, siblings were wed to siblings to preserve the purity of the royal families. Zelda is the rightful future Queen, but him… what is he?"

_A question with many answers, _thought Eros. It began to make sense to both brothers, as they spoke on. Eros listened, his fancy for gossip growing. Rumors have some truth to them, no matter how altered, or exaggerated they become.

"The Hero of Time," Jay said. "On the surface, it's a simple fairytale… a lovely princess, a renegade hero with an enigmatic past, and the evil tearing them apart. But if you strip away the gloss, the glamour of a simple everlasting romance, you'd see the horror."

The soldier was aghast. "The Goddesses would not—"

"Would they, if it meant preserving and protecting their creation, their power?"

Eros thought a bit. "The king. He has done nothing to stop it."

"I know." _Why, though? _Jay and whores alike came from all over Hyrule claiming the king to have fathered their bastards. With filthy pink toddlers in arms, they came to the gates, demanding His Grace to listen. The king sent them home with fresh loaves of bread and milk, never seen again, when he could have had their tongues fed to dogs for lying.

"But maybe _he _doesn't."

"Half of Hyrule suspects it, Eros."

*...*...*

"Your Grace, what troubles you this morning?" Impa asked. The king did not turn from the window, as he spied on his daughter and her companion in the royal garden. Zelda and Link had walked through garden after garden, chattering about nothings—the happenings of yesterday, the color of a lovely flower here and there, and each other's charms. Twice had he said how lovely she looked in her dress, a pink gown graced with lilac ribbons, the dressmaker joked it to be made of gossamer fairy wings. Zelda was not innocent, either. She was encouraging the love-struck boy, pushing him away softly, blushing and smiling mischievously at each compliment.

"It's my daughter. She's becoming smitten with the Kokiri, and he of her," he answered after a long pause.

"Young love is nothing to trouble oneself over," Impa asserted. "And the lad is most deserving of her attention. He is her most confiding guardian." The king was silent. "Or will you dismiss him of his title, for his love for the princess?" She hoped to keep the boy near Zelda, for he loved her truly and protected her for this sole reason. He had no fondness for the rupee, nor was he depraved as the king's lecherous soldiers were.

"No, no. I could not." Impa was relieved.

"Then let them be," she said.

Below, Link took Zelda's silk-gloved hand in his own. He planted a light kiss on her neck, as she watched her hand in his. She giggled. The king clenched his jaw. "Bring him to me," he told her.

The Sheikah gave a look of surprise. "Why? He has done nothing wrong." At this, the king shifted his attention from the window to her, deep lines surrounding his eyes in anger.

"You don't question your king, Impa. Ever," he reminded.

Impa looked to the floor for release from his discontent. _I forget you're the king as you are my friend._ "I'm sorry, _Your Grace_. I'll call for him," Impa dutifully agreed. She exited with hopes unheard.

The king turned aged blue eyes to the door, hearing the nearing of heavy footfalls, weighed down by iron armor. He went to the lesser suspicious place at the throne. Link entered, gallant in new blue metal and fine leather. He made a handsome knight, no doubt, the king thought. The serving girls did not attempt to hide that fact as they scurried by, smiling.

"You called, Your Grace," he said in a voice that could charm the vilest dragon.

"Yes. Come near." Link shied nearer. He was tall, taller than the king, but the king still looked down to him. The king stood a few steps higher, a few steps below his throne. The boy looked up at him with fluid azure eyes. _You have my eyes…_ the king thought, observing sadly.

Link noticed his upset. "What is wrong, Your Grace?"

"Nothing." The king shook his head, blinking thrice hard. "Sir Link, how would you like to be my new Hand? Davius seeks retire to care for his younger children and ailing wife permanently."_ If I can't keep you away from us, I'll keep you closer, in my sight. _A good plan, but he still hoped for a better one.

Link smiled. The king ascended to the next step, away. _But you have _her_ smile…_

"Who will be my guardian now?" Zelda frowned, pouting. Unable to resist the satin-pink plumpness of her mouth, Link pressed a finger to her lower lip.

"The twins, Jay and Eros, will take over my job," he said, teasing her shapely lips with his finger.

"It takes more than two men to do your job." She bit his finger lightly. Link smiled.

"I'll still be near."

Zelda let his hand fall. "Nearer to my dad, remember." He thought about it, and looked at her apprehensively. _Your father honors him, and you worry him with your needs?_ The bitterness of guilt rose in her throat. "I am proud of you, nonetheless," she managed to say. "My father might be letting you sit in his chair and try on his crown next."

"If His Grace desires it, then I will do as he bids." Link winked. The princess winked too, looking to his left. He followed her gaze to nothingness, flowerbeds they admired earlier, then felt her kissing him. He tasted the tartness of sour wine and sweet fruit nectar joined in her mouth, and he brushed away gold locks of hair, unsure and not caring of whose they were.

"My lady," someone interrupted.

The two broke the kiss and stood straight, stunned. "Yes?"

"We are at your command, my lady, as of tonight," one twin said- neither Zelda nor Link could distinguish one from the other.

The princess raised her skirts and swerved to her knight. "As of tomorrow morn, soldier. This night, Sir Link is at my command." She placed a hand on Link's armored chest, blue eyes meeting another pair of blue eyes.

Eros and John stiffened as though they had been struck. "Forgive us, then, my lady," the second twin said and they went away.

"_This night, Sir Link is at my command,_" Eros mocked. "Little slut."

"_Shh_." Jay pulled him to the side. The princess and her knight rode by atop a brown mare, the color of the twins' eyes.

Eros' glare chased them with unavailing rage. "Look, there goes the bastard hero and our brother-fucking lady!"

"_Shh_. They may hear us!"

The brothers kept traveling, reaching Kakariko Village by midnight. By then, Eros was panting, Jay grinning at him.

"All right," Eros gasped, "we're here. Now, get to your destination and let's get the fuck out."

"So you can get drunk and piss in your armor before you can get out of it, brother?"

"See to your bitch, and _I'll _worry about my drinking problem." Eros left him to lean on the wooden pen further ahead from the entrance.

"I'm not worrying," behind, his brother said. "I'll be pouring the wine down your throat later."

_Picky bastard, _Eros thought. _All the cunts are the same in the end. _A _cluck_ startled him. He drew out his sword and rolled his eyes. "_Goddesses_, girl. I could have _killed_ you." The girl's mouth was open, the cucco in her arms still. She dropped the cucco and severely slapped him.

"Pig!" The girl gathered the cucco before it got far. "What are you trying to do to my cuccos?"

"Bitch, with what conviction do you accuse me!" He put away his sword, before the idiocy brought with his temper took over. The girl mistook his motion as an attack and ran from him. He caught her by the arm, the morning's incident on his mind. "You're the cucco girl, aren't you? You feed and watch over these demons!"

"I'm _Anju_, you pig," she said deprecatingly. The cucco escaped her clutch. Anju let it go, exhausted from the monotonous routine of chasing, catching, and chasing again.

He grinned. Anju was sort of pretty—dark blue eyes, like fragments of sapphires, and hair red like peppers that Eros loved so much-not beautiful like his princess, but _pretty._ "I'm Eros, _beautiful_," he purred and grabbed her face with a hand, the other lowering to her backside.

Eros never kissed her, alas, but he did get to see stars when she whacked him with something heavy. He felt his weary eyelids bring forth darkness, and his hand torn away from her firm rear.

*...*...*

They were rather nice, some odd green quartzes with red specks. Link sneaked one into his pouch.

"They're called bloodstones," Zelda explained. She found a larger one with the red markings more like blood splatters than tiny specks. "The river is lined with them. Do you know why?"

Link shrugged. He did not care if they had been gold chunks with rubies embedded in them. Her person depreciated the beauty of the night-washed sky and land. He did not deserve her- a king's daughter, his future Queen. Sometimes he thought he was defiling her with his love.

She sat by his side and began to tell the story he cared not about, but listened to anyway. Her honey voice lured him to heed:

"Before Hyrule, there existed a different land—the land of the Goddesses. A different kind of people walked these fields. They were perfect, crafted by the Goddesses' hands. Beautiful high cheekbones, rose-red lips, skin as flawless and white as cream. Eyes like diamonds, without color, but when sun fell upon them, they were violets, greens, oranges—little prisms, like the bands of colors in the sky after rain. They were_ rain-colored._ Their hair were ropes of braided silver, falling to their shoulders, one long braid to the floor. Bodies of …fairy beauty, but clothed, the males were no different from the females. They were all the same- the same faces, the same lives, the same vain.

"Once, a child was born… _different_. She possessed the same aching sexless beauty of her race, save for her eyes and hair. Her eyes were gold, as the sun, instead of rain. Her hair was the blue of skies.

"Her parents left her at the Goddesses' temple in the secrecy of night. A stranger found and raised her. He called her _Blue._

"The stranger protected Blue, fed and kept her beneath a safe and warm roof, but her could not protect her from the others, the silver-haired children and their jealous-wary rain-colored eyes. They spat on her, made her gold eyes weep. Years of this made her miserable, but she was always beautiful.

"At fifteen, as she climbed a tree for a peach, she heard someone call her:

" 'Blue!' It came from below. Blue glanced downward, and when she saw him, she fell.

"The boy caught her and placed her down, laughing. Blue laughed. He had her eyes_!_ her hair_!_ and sorrow beneath his laughter. They were of the same height and age, as well.

" 'When I heard, I came! Two years I looked for my kind—'

" '—and I've found you,' Blue finished. They held each other, laughing, kissing blue hair and closed gold eyes.

"They fell in love. Blue and Azure had four children, all sky-haired and sun-eyed. Happiness that once teased her with hopeless dreams was _hers._ She began to pray to keep her blessings. One day, at the temple, the Goddesses spoke:

" '_Why do you come? Your sins are without forgiveness. No prayer or song will relieve you.'_

" 'I have never sinned. I live for my family… and you,' Blue cried.

"_ 'To mate with one's own blood is of the greater sins. Pray but it won't save you.'_

"And her happiness died with the prayer on her lips."

Link felt the bloodstone through the brown soft leather of his pouch, listening. Zelda went on:

"Blue told everything to Azure.

" 'I thought you knew,' he said matter-of-factly. 'Blue, I thought you wiser…'

"True, she wondered, but the notion always fled from her consciousness when he held one of their children, the others laughing, and she joined the consoling bliss of their games. 'Why?' she asked.

" 'We were in Mother's womb together, but she gave us up when she saw what we were.'

" 'No,' Blue whimpered, ' why did you let me love you?'

"Azure's eyes flashed, hurt. 'You were a part of me, a reflection, my twin… I've loved you since I knew you existed.'

"The next minute she was running, Azure calling her from behind, chasing her. Her legs grew tired and the earth ended. She stood at the edge of a cliff, on the brink of death.

" 'Blue,' Azure cooed, sweat and worry on his face. She thought of nights with him, his seed erupting inside her… the children they made. Then she felt the earth weaken . . .

". . . and she was falling. Azure was not there to catch her.

"They found her pieces and collected them. Her blood was too much to bother to clean, so they left it, splatters, and specks and prints on the sand littered with quartzes as dark and green as the forest.

"Azure and the children disappeared. So did the land, slowly, after ages. The perfection chipped and faded into the Hyrule of today."

Zelda was climbing on top a boulder, when Link realized the story was over. "This used to be a cliff, and that—" she pointed to the river—"was her hair. I already told you about _those._" She scrunched up her face, disgusted, at the bloodstones. "Get rid of it, Link. It'll only bring bad fortune."

"It's just a tall tale, another fairytale," he murmured. Still, it scared him a bit. The bloodstone stayed in his pouch, even so. Link went to her, placed his hands on her slender waist and lifted her. She wrapped her legs and arms around him.

"Fairytales have happy endings. _Blue_ was a myth." She sounded so smug; he covered her scowling mouth with his.

"Link?" Zelda asked. He stopped kissing her.

"Yes?"

"Do you love me?" She knew he did. It always touched [and hurt] him to hear her ask.

"_Until the end of time._"

"Then let me ask this of you..." He put her down, and sat with her. There was concern in his eyes, she had not seen since the time Ganondorf had imprisoned her in a jewel in another life. His hands were holding hers, fearing for nothing and yet something without a name in her unsaid request.

"What, my princess?"

She began to undress.

*...*...*

_Farore! _It was late, almost morning.

_Din! _Zelda was not home yet; up in burgundy sheets to her cream-pale chin in her fairy-beauty sleep.

_Nayru!_ Link was with her.

The king tossed his crown to the bed, his graying hair exposed to the midnight chill. He paraded down and up the halls, waiting, waiting, and she did not come.

He went and sat on his thrown. He waited. Sleep seduced him; his body betrayed him.

A heavy thud woke him. Bleary, he gasped at the shadow—no, a _man._ _"Goddesses!"_ he exclaimed, at the sight of the dark man. He remains frozen in his sheets, and the Gerudo lunges at him with a cold dagger blade close to his neck. "You're quite early, aren't you?"

"Not quite," Ganondorf said modestly. Dawn would not come for hours. He threw the dagger onto the bed and shook his dark hands of dust. "You know how easy it is to creep up in here and kill you, whilst your guardsmen sleep at their posts?"

"Only to you, my friend. We are well aware of your dislike of our fancy daylight welcomes." The king saw his humility as a virtue; he loved the Gerudo king as much as he loved his late brothers. He trusted him as much, or even more, with his life.

"I don't require a fanfare and feast for our friendly meetings, and I much enjoy the terror in your Hand's face when he sees me sheathing my berry-stained sword as I leave your room. Where is that fool Davius anyhow?"

"Dismissed. He has much to worry about this days. Link has temporarily filled his place." The look on his face was conspicuously disturbed.

"Sounds like we have much to talk about tonight," Ganondorf said, his Gerudo face gave no indication of reproach, only an open kindness. The king told him _everything_, while he listened without an expression of horror or outrage. The King of Hyrule never felt safer with his secrets, his life, and his land.

"You cannot tell them, it would destroy them," the Gerudo king said. "But if you rid yourself of _him_, then the princess will be free of his lust."

"He is _my son!"_ the king cried.

"If you let him live, and merely exile him, _she'll_ hate you… forever, never understanding, always asking _Why?_" He was pacing now, as if hatching a scheme of his own. "It could look accidental. I can make it look as if the Goddesses had willed his death, Your Grace."

The king fell to his knees. "_Farore, Din, Nayru…_ please forgive me." He nodded. "Do it, my friend."

"Good night, my friend, you need your rest. We'll speak politics after dawn." Ganondorf said nothing else. He left.

The king climbed the stairs to his chamber and crawled into bed, speaking softly, "_Forgive me, _Cerena_…" _She was in his thoughts always, the maiden in his long-forgotten youth; a peasant woman, _one lowly, _as his royal kin would put it. He could see her half-moon smile and dark brown eyes, an innocence taken and desecrated, twist into something hideous—hatred—and the fault was there, deep in his heart.

He loved Zelda, the princess of Hyrule, daughter of the late great Queen of Hyrule and he, more than he ever would love _Cerena's _son, the child he disowned as it rested incomplete, forming in her belly-_Link_. Cerena would never be part of his life; he wed his wife and queen, who gifted him with the most beautiful daughter._ Zelda._ She became the world to him.

"_Forgive me…" _He would not ask Cerena again, so he asked the goddesses.

"_Farore…_

_"Din…_

_"Nayru."_

_*...*...*_

They put on their clothes again. The joining of their bodies was a memory, but the cuts were still there, hurting.

"It's like a fairytale!" Zelda said, closing her wounded palms. The bloodied dagger lay blameless on the grass; this was her doing. But it was his love for her that let her cut without demur.

Link was skeptical. "What kind of fairytale has lovers share blood?" It was a silly thing to do, now, he thought. _What will the others say? _Zelda tightened her fists, then stretched out her fingers. Droplets of red formed along the curve of the wound.

"Ours." Her palms met his in a bloody kiss.

He winced.

*...*...*

Stars were vertiginous. Vomit crept up to his tongue. He sent it back down, swallowing. Two blue stars spun, dancing. The music was strange, the female singing stranger. A woman whispered, _"I'mmmm soooorrrryyyy,"_ throughout the song. The dance ended, and the stars faced him, side-by-side. They blinked.

Eros woke. Anju was staring down at him, her sapphire eyes guilty. "I'm sorry." She lifted a large fuchsia rupee. "I didn't think it was _that_ heavy."

His mouth watered. "Give that to me and I'll crawl on hands and knees, naked, and howl like a wolfo." Anju raised her red brows, looking at the rupee. "I'll do anything, _Goddesses_, oh great cucco lady…"

Jay glanced cock-eyed at his brother. Eros was on the floor, pulling on his boots. A fuchsia rupee winked like a star. He approached him. "So who's whoring, _now_?" Eros went for his rupee, but Jay beat him to it. He whistled, examining the beautiful glass-stone.

"I earned it."

"Who paid you? A virgin old hag…? An overweight, bald little man…?" Jay was laughing, Eros struggling to pry the rupee out his hands. It was futile. He gave up.

Eros smirked. "It was Princess Zelda. Apparently, Sir Link is terrible in bed." He thrust his pelvis to and fro. "I took her again, and again, and… again. And look at what pretty rupee she gave me."

"The king will kill you," Jay said, laughing louder. The whole village might wake, but he did not give a damn. His brother's eyes were afire, again, with those lies.

"Oh, he came along… and took her from behind, like the bitch she is. He got a nice rupee, too. I took that one from him as he slept."

Jay put out his hand. "I… I… Well," Eros scratched his head. "I bought a blow job with that one." He hung his head, ashamed.

Something winked in the grass. Jay took the pendant in his hand and dangled it in his brother's horror-struck face.

"It was Mother's, you dumbfuck," Jay said. "Don't lose it." He glowered at his brother, his _careless, dimwitted_ brother. "Say it!"

Eros recited the lines behind the pendant: _"Her hair like sunlight, eyes like the earth this night. A smile like a half-moon, a beauty ended too soon." _He kissed it, below the painting of their smiling mother, on the cursive text reading _Cerena._

Satisfied, his brother treaded to the exit. "Let's go. I heard wolfos."

Eros followed.

*...*...*

"They said it was spiders, gigantic onyx spiders!" a girl said, with her arms in the air, forming bony spidery legs.

Her brother spat watermelon seeds, inches from her bare feet. "_Please._ Everyone knows it was THE GREAT AND EVIL POE KING!"

No one was sure how he died. Only that he died.

_He _was dead.

The Hero of Time was _dead_.

And only the Goddesses were to blame.


	3. Secrets

**Secrets**

The Kokiri's small hands reclined on the boulder's face, where an eye had been carefully chiseled on. Its piercing gaze was secured on her elf-child face.

Saria lifted it, turning over, and tried it on her. The Truth Mask fit perfectly, concealing her face well, so only a few wisps of lime-green hair peeked from behind the mask. It was a child's mask the color of ivory-cream and in the shape of a very small shield, yet it was large enough to cover the wearer's face, assuming s/he was a child. In the center, a single eye had been delineated on in a crimson pigment. Vacant triangles plainly drawn out, surrounding the eye like fat eyelashes.

While her best friend, Link, was gone, she had promised to treat it with care, and he had promised to return.

_"Here, the Truth Mask. Keep it for me. I'll have come back for it soon enough, for it does not belong to me." _

_Accepting the mask, the Kokiri spoke her last words to him. "Promise me that you'll return."_

_"I promise I'll return… when I'm a real hero."_

Link was not seen for the last seven years.

It took her some time to realize the power of the mask, that it wasn't a mere child's mask, but a tool that could be used to deviate the truth from the false tales of the stones. The Gossip Stones scattered across Hyrule were more than talking clocks. They were, well, _gossipers._

It was one of the Skull kids that had told her of the magical essence of the mask. Like most of her race, and any other race, she trusted one as far as she could toss him/her. Considering how weighty the skull kids are to a child, she would not trust one with a deku stick, in fear it might set it on fire, then set its heart, a piece of frigid coal, on pillaging her village—or worst: start poking her mercilessly, 'til she lost all sanity.

"Tell me, Gossip Stone," she asked, "where is Link?" Dork or not, she missed him. Link was her best friend, according to fairly reliable secondary resources.

"Last night, I heard the other Gossip Stones sing, and what beautiful voices they are when they ring!"

At receiving the incorrect response, the Kokiri kicked the stone soundly in the eye. "Wrong! Tell me something different."

_"They sang ever so sweetly. My goddesses such voices, such harmony!"_

Aggravated, she kicked it again.

"The lyrics were puzzling, speaking of a dark man and his lies, and the secrets stolen and the goddesses' cries!"

Just as the chants were getting interesting, she gave up. Facing the stone, Saria flumped down on the grass. She removed the mask and placed it on the ground, leaning against the Gossip Stone.

_Why aren't you working?_ She wanted to kick the stone again, but her toes felt as if they were aflame. _Damned rocks_. Glaring with a viciousness not seen since the twins brought home a pup wolfo, Saria wished her small fists could do more than merely shake.

She breathed in deeply, exhaled slowly and took in her surroundings. _Perhaps calmness would improve the Truth Mask's focus._

Sage-green blades of grass grew from the sacred earth in the meadow. It was a maze of nature. With its twists and turns, few attempted to finish it. Lingering too long was hazardous to mortals, for it meant transforming into wolfos. But the song… the song was not to be resisted. It was not possible to not linger and live in one's deadly rapture of music. The howls are most common at night, when they creep nearer, perhaps to complete a maze, to reach the player of the song, and fall upon his/her feet to hear it and die.

Not one has found her, the green-haired child with her sweet song that flows from her clay ocarina.

A shadow and a sound came from behind her, almost unseen.

"Link," she said to herself before she even saw him. There he was, searching—for her. Older, battle-scarred, but still her Link.

Saria eyes began to tear as she flung off the Truth Mask. She had seen everything. The memories of pain, loneliness, and a lost youth. And she saw something else, not in his mind, but in his tired heart. A simple something. A secret.

And now it was her secret, too.

Link approached her again. He dropped his shield sword and held out his arms.

She ran into them.

_I love you, too_, she thought but did not say.

"I've missed you," he said.

_"_I know, _I know_."

She did not need a Truth Mask to see this much.


End file.
